Triangle Away on the Note3 - the end of Triangle Away ?
Posted on 2013-10-04, 55 comments, 135 +1's, imported from Google+/Chainfire

NOTICE: This content was originally posted to Google+, then imported here. Some formatting may be lost, links may be dead, and images may be missing.

Triangle Away is not fully operational on the Note3. The device doesn't seem to actually count the number of flashes, but it does store the binary status, system status, and KNOX warranty void.

As stated before, the KNOX warranty status appears to be a one time thing. This should not be treated as fact yet, but it is what it looks like at the moment.

Binary status however, would normally be able to still be reset. Alas, Samsung is now using a form of write protection on that part of the flash storage so only the bootloader can write to it. This means Triangle Away cannot reset this status for the time being. You will have to flash a stock kernel and stock recovery to reset this status. And even then, I have run two different bootloader rivisions on my Note3, and on one of them it wouldn't reset, and on the other it would. I'm not sure what that is about at the moment. Let just wait and see for a few weeks what happens on the bootloader front.

System status can still be reset by Triangle Away, but may be of limited use. It also depends on how much you modified system.

There is a possible hack to reset the write protection on the flash storage so we can reset some values, but it is a difficult one to build and I'm not even sure I'd succeed if I tried. Either way, at the moment it seems that is not of much use unless we can find a way to reset the KNOX warranty void as well. Until I get (or find) some information that that may be possible, I'm not even going to bother trying. A similar hack would be needed for the I9500 as well, by the way, but unfortunately that hack would be completely device specific if I ever were to get it to work. Alternatively, we could hack together our own bootloader, but we'd have some signing issues to overcome for that... :)

It is to be expected future Samsung devices will use the same methods as the Note 3, and as such, unless there's some significant new information or changes, this may well be the end of Triangle Away.

+1135
Massimo greco commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:39:

I'm using I 9505. And using just root, no customer rom or kernel. So, if system and binary status can be reset I should be able to receive Ota updates... and this may be important to me.

Omar Bizreh commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:41:

Even though this post doesn't concern me but I always enjoy reading you posts, thanks for the info :-)

Simos Katsiaris commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:42:

Good news for +Sony and +OPPO then, +Samsung Mobile is nothing without custom roms

Filippo Gaudenzi commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:42:

No please the end of triangle away?? This can't be possible...triagle away will live 4ever!!!

Matt Booth commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:44:

I opened my i9505 new the other day to find a pre-KNOX bootloader. I count myself lucky for that. Promptly installed the GPE ROM.

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:49:

To reset Knox till now there is only One way: replace eMMC... NOT even JTAG won't do nothing

Brian Barria commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:50:

Well, if someone cant undo the knox 0x1 trigger, someone might want to make a code that really bricks the phone to the point where it could not start the bootloader at all. If it cant boot, they wont know that knox is modified right?? As one's part, play dumb and pretend that it died on it's own... hehehe

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 13:59:

I'm starting to think that there is hidden partition in the eMMC... Why? Let's take it logic: efused = not even the eMMC replaced won't retest Knox... But once you replace eMMC you got rid of Knox that means ... That have to be in the eMMC

Andrew Dodd commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:04:

+Simos Katsiaris Well, to play Devil's Advocate here - Sony's unlock procedure leaves a permanent record that your device was modified, just like the KNOX warranty alert.

Terry Lee commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:10:

You know the devs will figure it out.  They are the best.  

Chainfire commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:15:

+Stanescu Dan How do you know just an eMMC replacement get rids of KNOX ?

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:19:

A friend of mine that is in gsm service did it. I'm working in free time in gsm service. So I we are in the community

Oliver Madden commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:21:

I'm so intrigued by this Knox business. Am I right in saying that once you root the Knox "switch" is permanently switched? Meaning the only thing that could change this back would be to "replace" the switch (soft or hard)?

Chainfire commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:21:

+Stanescu Dan Interesting. If it's on the eMMC we might be able to find it (though it will probably still be write protected), but it's difficult unless you can compare before/after eMMC contents

Ayush Singhal commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:36:

I will still root my note 3...lol

Waiting for some custom roms and kernel..

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 14:58:

So to understand: we tried JTAG on Knox enable boot - result = not booting with non-Knox but booting with MH8 boot ( Knox on ... Still flagged ) ... So he tried replace eMMC. WORKED. Non Knox bootloader.

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 15:03:

----- I don't take cruiser credit for nothing ----- 

Add me in circles I want to send you something in privet

Joni Salminen commented on 2013-10-04 at 15:19:

Well, to be exact dont care a shit Aslong as i live inside eu :) thought shit like this makes it worse outside ....:(

Sinan Çetinkaya commented on 2013-10-04 at 15:24:

This is the End of Samsung for us, not TriangleAway's. You have done a great job ChainFire ;)

Joni Salminen commented on 2013-10-04 at 15:32:

Anyway, not To get me wrong i appreciate all work u have done with Samsung devices, but its not going to keep me without root even if we dont have triangle away

Jorrit Jongma commented on 2013-10-04 at 15:51:

+Stanescu Dan I've added you to circles on this account - let me know what you want to let me know :)

Yashar Ahmedizade commented on 2013-10-04 at 16:33:

What?! tringle away's end is also our's end :(

anthony lester commented on 2013-10-04 at 16:42:

Why wouldn't the old magnet trick work on the eMMC thus whipping all data encrypted or not then perhaps jtag it

Bradley Leyten commented on 2013-10-04 at 18:00:

Triangle Away didn't work for me on the Note 2, it would reset all but leave a 1 for the custom binaries!

Angarato Surion commented on 2013-10-04 at 18:34:

What is the triangle away?

Stanescu Dan commented on 2013-10-04 at 18:41:

Paris ... How to tell you... I that thing when you don't know what ate you donning and you are seeing a yellow triangle ;)

Angarato Surion commented on 2013-10-04 at 18:43:

I see no yellow triangle. I just can't update through ota.

Angarato Surion commented on 2013-10-04 at 18:50:

It exists a rumor that triangle away might fix the custom status

Brian Barria commented on 2013-10-04 at 20:02:

+Bradley Leyten probably u forgot to remove ur ext sdcard. It happened to me too.

+Chainfire i know you can figure things out. TriangleAway might not work here anymore.. maybe u can make KnoxAway instead..???

Brian Barria commented on 2013-10-04 at 20:07:

Also, not rooting is like having a windows phone.. ? anyway, i've had the s2, s3, note2 and now note3 - still haven't used the warranty.. i dont think this is really a big deal.. but it is a big sweet problem to solve though.. ??????

Scott Wetlaufer commented on 2013-10-04 at 20:18:

for sure..so limiting

Yashar Ahmedizade commented on 2013-10-04 at 20:23:

+Sinan Çetinkaya her yerde de türk çıkıyor ya :D

Robert Clark commented on 2013-10-04 at 20:49:

Brianbarria That's abusing the system to a strong point costing all of us in long run but. I have a way to do this. However it involves unshielding and a powerful magnet. A few screws. Lol

christian garcia commented on 2013-10-04 at 21:21:

L

waiyan soe commented on 2013-10-05 at 05:02:

Ilove it

Martin Stephenson commented on 2013-10-05 at 06:09:

Bad news for people who like to flash roms - and keep hardware warranty intact, but good news for Samsung as it indicates Knox security is working.

Steve Donaghy commented on 2013-10-05 at 08:56:

On my rooted note 3 right now. If I ever have a issue with this that requires Sammy to repair it, I'll be happy to take them to Court if they refuse. It would only be a hardware thing, if it's a software issue then I've got the whole community to help!

Thanks for all your hard work, +Chainfire , I and many others appreciate your efforts and everything you've done thus far.

Peter Coverley commented on 2013-10-05 at 22:02:

+Chainfire Respect to you Chainfire, magnificent work!! Please, please, keep it up, thanks for all your hard work and devotion.

Antonio Valladares commented on 2013-10-05 at 22:41:

Does triangle away 3.10 work fpr knox firmwares for the i9505? Dpnt wanna brick my phone..

mojo jojo commented on 2013-10-08 at 21:10:

i dont know any thing about flashing but , can an img with a stat for knox  and  the phone count two .

M. El-Shahawi commented on 2013-10-09 at 23:16:

this is not the End

you did it before and you will do it again

Thanks chainfire

wish you all the best :)

Albert Reguyal commented on 2013-10-10 at 03:24:

Knox is not yet Installed in my note 3..When I click in Knox icon, it will give an install prompt. does this mean i can use triangle away?

Z. Ghaffar commented on 2013-10-11 at 21:12:

nope, knox apk, knox security goes beyond an as Chainfire says its built in inside the new bootloader and it will trigger the void flag, then you cannot use knox apk ....

Jared Howard commented on 2013-10-13 at 01:27:

Chainfire, I think you are the number one seller of Samsung products. If you go somewhere else I, for one, will follow.

Scott Elder commented on 2013-10-25 at 19:09:

Don't understand why they just don't release an aosp version.... Leave out knox, tw, port spen apk to Android, seems there would be a market for it.... Just limit the warranty to non flashing damage.... Etc... I just don't understand the big stiff against that.... Charge 50 more and limit the warrenty

Issa Souley commented on 2013-10-25 at 20:06:

+Chainfire I am sorry to hear that our most useful tool:triangle away may come to an end. I am hopeful that you will come up with another tool even better. You are the man. Thanks.

Jonathan Imler commented on 2013-10-30 at 04:32:

Any chance of updating T-A for the SCH-R970C? It resets the Binary Status to Official for 1 boot as long as everything is stock. But the Flash Counter still goes up.

preetham patnaik commented on 2013-11-02 at 02:45:

What sucks is I can't evem downgrade to damn 4.2.2 firmware on my s4

Holy Shit!

Since 4.2.2 doesn't have a knox boot loader if we downgrade it would trigger the warranty bit!

Screw Samsung

Ive been using samsung since years!

Now it may be crippled

It cheated me!

Jacques de Kock commented on 2013-11-04 at 10:43:

Chainfire, please can you explain what the difference is between the i9500 and the i9505, for you have the code broken on the i9505. Really don't want you to give up on us, we are all hoping that you will get the resolution for this binary counter reset for the i9500. thanks 

Mohammad Irfan Safdar Ali commented on 2013-11-20 at 06:31:

From XDA:

Hi all,

First of all pardon me for my poor English.

Today I went to Samsung service center to fix my note 3 SM-N9005 after I missed up with it.. no efs folder, no IMEI, bootloader flashed to MJ3 and the Konx was 0x1 actually warranty void..

The technician guy checked the Konx and told me the warranty is void but don't worry I will fix it for free.

The surprised thing is that they have fixed my mobile within 10 minutes.

After fixing it.. I checked the the Konx is back to 0x0 so they reset it !.

The bootloader back to MJ1 so they downgraded the bootloader !!.

IMEI and serial no. never changed !!.

And no hardware change at all.. so now, its very clear the Konx trigger is a software trigger and can be reset again with some how.

Jacques de Kock commented on 2013-11-20 at 07:27:

Thank you for the info, so that means that there is a reset tool. Awesome

news. Now we need just the clever people to help us with this tool. Someone

at samsung must be able to assist with the correct direction to take.

sunil dhawan commented on 2013-12-15 at 05:13:

is it possible to reset status on sm n900 exynos by triangle away

Mazlum özçağdavul commented on 2013-12-28 at 21:53:

+sunil dhawan not yet

Santiago Aldaño commented on 2014-04-22 at 06:59:

fock :c i need this apk for my n900

exynos sucks ¬¬

Benito Camelo commented on 2014-09-27 at 22:28:

Please add support for Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500...

Thanks...

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